Alice X at Mt Shasta

Mt Shasta is a location that has been defeating me for as long as I have been traveling.  Its a town, its a mountain, its a beautiful place, and for whatever reason I can't seem to have a successful shoot with that giant mountain in the background to save my life.

My first attempt was back in 2012 when I was shooting for 50 Models 50 States.  I was just stopping to shoot sunset at a reflecting lake.  The goal wasn't an outdoor nude because it was February, and temperatures where in the low teens.  My drive down to the lake was cut short by a road closure, that meant I was going to have to do an unexpected 2 mile hike out for sunset, and then hike back in the dark...my favorite.  Not wanting to call it quits I pulled on my snow suit, snow boots, and loaded up my camera bag.  Nicole stayed behind with Franco.

The first two steps of the hike pretty much set the tone immediately for the next 2 hours.  My feet sank deep into the fluffy snow, and I was up to my waste pulling myself up and forward with my tripod for each step.  After half an hour of that I managed to get under some trees where the snow drifts weren't as deep, and even caught up with the main trail that was still fairly well packed.  I just had to get down to it, which ordinarily would have been pretty hard from the 12 foot cliff I found myself perched above it, but I first slid my tripod down the snowy embankment, then my camera bag, and despite my fear of hates and misgivings there was no way I wasn't going after my camera bag.

By the time I got to the lake sunset was already happening, and worse yet I couldn't get to the vantage point I was hoping to shoot at because of some flooding.  I tried several times to get a decent shot from where I was and failed repeatedly.  The sun disappeared, and I began my hike back in the dark.  Getting down the cliff was easy.  Climbing back up it turned out not so much.  Eventually I managed to hook my tripod legs into some frozen tree roots and pull myself back up, and then slog as quickly as I could through my original foot prints back to the car.

Nicole was pulling her boots and snow suit on to come find me, and honking the horn hoping that it would guide me back, and it did.  I'd already been gone much longer than she was expecting...much longer than I was expecting too.

For five years I pretty much refused to stop at Shasta.  We'd pull into town and grab food on our way up I-5, but I had no interest in trying to do another shoot there.  Then I did a road trip with Alice X from Seattle to San Fransisco and back.  I could tell she was very anxious to shoot as it takes almost two or three days for me to get to San Fransisco now with my bad knee, so I pulled down that same road this March, drove to the end, found the spot I had wanted to shoot all those years ago.  When the road is open the hike is only about two minutes, but still it just wasn't working.  The preview photo gives a very good idea of the type of light I was dealing with.  Alice really wanted the mountain, and I just really wanted to take some photos with softer back lighting.  We compromised and I took a few silly onesy photos.  Fortunately it worked out, and we managed to create some great stuff, but Shasta still eludes me.

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